


Bone Deep

by rael_ellan



Series: Labyrinthine [2]
Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: Gen, Post-Series, just a quick drabble really, relationships visible if you're wearing the goggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 17:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4188249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rael_ellan/pseuds/rael_ellan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite knowing all this, despite the ache in his bones that yearned for redemption of the ruined paradise that was the O.Z., the Queen’s announcement had still surprised him.</p>
<p>Can be read as a stand-alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bone Deep

**Author's Note:**

> I had the itch to write, but nothing concrete in my head, so this happened. 
> 
> It might be a tad confusing, but there will hopefully be a sequel.
> 
> Please, feel free to give me feedback or advice on this; it would be much appreciated.

After everything that had happened, everything they had worked towards, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Not _really_ , anyway. Cain had known, of course, had expected, that the Sorceress’s world would be toppled, layers stripped away and reapplied until the old order was back in place. He was a realist, a pragmatic. He was a Tin Man.

But despite knowing all this, despite the ache in his bones that yearned for redemption of the ruined paradise that was the O.Z., the Queen’s announcement had still surprised him. 

He tried not to show it, aware of the eyes of the court flickering between him and Jeb, expectantly; they knew his history, they wanted a show. Jeb provided it readily enough, stepping forwards immediately when the Queen asked for volunteers, full of grim determination and a rising righteous fury. 

Cain said nothing. He stayed still, and tried to think of the marble columns in DGs room, the cobblestones in the street outside. He tried to ignore the tightness in his throat and the sudden roaring in his ears. He focused on not blinking too fast.

In the rush and the blur of the moment, the court faded away. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there, staring at the window on the far side of the room, but he could breathe again. That was the main thing.

“Hey there, tin man.” DG was standing beside him, one hand resting at his elbow. “You ok?”

He looked at her for a long moment, took in her tousled hair, the bruise above her left eye where her horse had reared, the fraying jeans she insisted on wearing whenever someone told her not to. Powerful magic wielder she might be, but she still wore her heart on her sleeve. 

“Never better. How’s palace life treating you?”

She groaned and rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

“Don’t _get_ me started. Did you know there’s a particular speed a princess is supposed to walk at? Not fast, because that looks like you’re rushing, but not too slow because then you’re not interested in the next group of people. I mean, really, who _thinks_ about stuff like that?”

He huffed a laugh. Though he hadn’t been allowed to sit in on DG’s ‘Princess Lessons’, he could well imagine how well they were going.

“Welcome to the joys of court life, Kid.”

He’d been given something of a whistle-stop tour of palace etiquette, too. A burly man in coat tails and a curiously dusty blue waistcoat had attempted to run him through his paces on three or four occasions. The last time, Glitch had popped by his rooms ‘for the pleasure of your company, Cain’, and had spent the best part of the hour cackling at him from the window seat and calling out his every attempt to sabotage the proceedings. 

As if on cue, Glitch’s nervous laughter echoed across to them from the far side of the room, and they turned to look. Glitch was tugging on the sleeves of his new – _old?_ – jacket, trying to make conversation with the Queen. She was laughing, smiling politely. She was probably saying something terribly polite and clever. 

He knew they had history, that they had been good friends, once – perhaps even a little more, if Ahamo’s protective stance behind his wife said anything. Whatever it had been, it was gone now. There was nothing easy in the way they stood, nothing relaxed or genial between them. The Queen didn’t know what to say to this new man, who knew little enough of court politics and intrigue. She would say something – an aside, some inside joke about so-and-so or such-and-such – as though he were Ambrose again , quick and clever and full of ideas, but Glitch would miss the brunt of it and they’d lapse into uncomfortable silence. 

“Really, though.” DG was looking at him again, blue eyes wide. “How are you doing?”

He shrugged. 

“Well enough.”

“Cain.”

The thing about friends, he started to remember, was that every one of them was different. No two people followed the same thread of thought, or moved in the same way when walking or fighting. No two people said your name the same way.

DG’s way was always loaded, always heavy with the questions she wanted and hated to ask. 

He sighed, and turned to watch Glitch and the Queen again. He was ducking his head, pretending to understand the joke.

“I’m not sure what you expect me to say. You know I won't miss him.”

“Don’t you feel it’s, I dunno, your right, or something?”

She sounded so awkward, so at odds with her usual bright impatience that he regretted his surliness. 

“You want the truth?”

She nodded. He flexed his fingers, dug the nails into the palm of his hand. Somewhere in the back of his head, the roaring picked up again, thrumming insistently.

“Zero’s a bastard. He’s a murderer and a villain, and every cruel thought, every time he... kicked a damn _dog_ has led up to this moment. From the minute he sided with the Sorceress, he damned himself. They all did. Every Longcoat in Central City was already walking towards the noose.” 

He didn’t mention that some of them had been Tin Men. Good men. Once. 

He took a breath, felt the roaring pick up and start to spiral through his brain, pressing behind his eyes like pins: angry, searching. Something tightened about his throat and he set his jaw against it. 

Across the room, Glitch was laughing again. Perhaps enough of Ambrose had surfaced to catch one of the Queen’s subtle jokes, or perhaps it was some more recent memory, from their adventures together. 

Cain unclenched his fingers. His lungs expanded again. The roar sputtered, fell back.

“They set themselves on this path, DG. They made that choice.” The rest came out before he could stop it, plunging on more thoughtlessly than he ever had; the stallion bucking and screaming into the heart of the storm. “But I’m not sure any man deserves to die. Not even Zero. The O.Z.’s seen too much of it, recently.”

DG sucked in her cheeks, watching him. She was holding the reins, in control of her emotions the way she hadn’t quite managed with her own horses, and he realised, surprised, that she didn’t know what to say.

He coughed, and pushed his hat back with one finger.

“Come on. Let’s go rescue Glitch from your mother before he hurts himself.”


End file.
